A biller is an entity that renders a service, or provides goods, to a customer on a credit basis, then, either simultaneously or subsequently, prepares and delivers a bill to request payment for the services or goods from the customer. Delivery of a bill can be completed by either traditional paper-based delivery, typically via a postal service, or electronic bill presentment. Electronic bill presentment is discussed further below. The customer, in turn, renders payment to the biller. Conventionally, bill payment has been by cash or check, although some billers have accepted payment by credit card.
Most bills have a due date. Some customers pay bills as close to a due date as possible, typically so as to retain control of funds as long as possible, while avoiding making payment late. Other customers coordinate payment timing with cash flow, also while avoiding making payment late. Late payment has associated negative consequences, which can include a penalty fee assessed by a biller, curtailment of a service, e.g., turning off a utility, and a negative impact to a customer's credit rating.
An electronic payment service provider is an entity that completes payment on behalf of a customer of that service provider. The customer on whose behalf a payment is completed is a payor, and an entity receiving the payment (often a biller) is a payee. A customer of service provider is known as a subscriber of the service provider. A subscriber can be an individual, a business, or another type of organization.
A service provider receives a payment request electronically, either directly from a subscriber, or from another entity acting on behalf of a subscriber. A payment request, at a minimum, specifies a payor (possibly indirectly), a payee (possibly by reference), and a payment amount. A payment date is also typically included, although it can be assumed to be “as soon as possible” if omitted. A payment request may be originated at any one of several electronic user interfaces, including automated telephone system interfaces, Web-based interfaces, PC application-based interfaces, PDA-based interfaces, and mobile phone-based interfaces.
After receipt of a payment request, a provider processes the request to complete the payment. At the conclusion of payment processing the service provider issues remittance to a payee. Remittance is a combination of a credit to a payee and remittance advice associated with the credit.
A credit accomplishes a transfer of funds to a payee to fulfill a payment request. A credit may be performed through a paper process (check or draft), or an electronic funds transfer (EFT) process. The funds may come directly from a demand deposit account associated with a subscriber, or from a demand deposit account associated with the payment service provider. A demand deposit account could be a checking account, a savings account, a money market account, or any other type account from which an account holder can at will issue an order that funds held therein be withdrawn for credit elsewhere. An electronic funds transfer is the process of causing funds to move between accounts at different financial institutions across one or more networks. A financial institution is an entity that maintains financial accounts that can be debited and/or credited as a result of transaction activity. Financial institutions include banks, savings and loans, credit unions, and brokerage houses. Networks linking financial institutions, as well as other entities, include the Federal Reserve's Automated Clearinghouse (ACH) network, MasterCard's® RPPS network, Visa's® ePay network, and Princeton's® eCom network. The Federal Reserve system is the central bank of the United States of America, formed by an act of Congress. It consists of twelve Reserve Banks located in major cities throughout the United States. The ACH electronically links the Federal Reserve Banks with financial institutions throughout the United States to support electronic funds transfer between the financial institutions. The RPPS, the ePay, and the eCom networks are examples of third party remittance networks, each of which links a service provider with a set of payees.
Remittance advice is a description of a credit that allows proper payment posting to a specific account, or sub-account, in a payee's Accounts Receivable ledger. Remittance advice may be tightly coupled with an instrument used to accomplish the credit (e.g., information printed in a memo field on a check or draft, or information included in a field in an electronic funds transfer file transmitted over a network linking financial institutions), or it may be somewhat decoupled from the credit, such as a paper document delivered to a payee, separate from a credit, or an electronic file transmitted directly to the payee separate from a credit. Remittance advice typically includes at least information identifying a payor, information identifying the payor's account with the payee, and a payment account.
A managed payee is a payee about whom a service provider has information that enables remittance to that payee to be handled in some improved/optimal fashion. The information typically includes one or more of account schemes for improved reliability of Accounts Receivable posting at the managed payee, account ranges for remittance center identification, other information for remittance center identification, preferred credit form (paper or electronic), preferred remittance advice form (paper or electronic), and electronic links for delivery of electronic credits and/or electronic remittance advice.
A managed payee provides this information to a service provider. The received information is typically stored in a managed payee database. A managed payee database includes information identifying each managed payee known to a service provider, along with the information received from each managed payee.
An unmanaged payee is a payee about whom a service provider does not maintain information which aids in the handling of remittance. An electronic payee is a managed payee about whom a service provider maintains information enabling remittance to be issued electronically. A merchant is a payee that issues bills for services rendered or goods purchased. Thus, a merchant is a special class of payee, a payee that issues bills. A merchant can be an unmanaged merchant, a managed merchant, or an electronic merchant.
For many service providers, payment processing dictates the form of remittance issued, i.e. electronic or paper. Some service providers use payment processing to determine a form of remittance based solely upon a status of a payee as a managed payee, with remittance issued in accordance with a managed payee's wishes. Thus, during payment processing, such a service provider determines if a payee identified in a payment request is a managed payee (or managed merchant). If so, information stored in a managed payee database is retrieved and remittance is issued in accordance with the stored information. If the retrieved information indicates that remittance should be issued electronically, the remittance is issued accordingly. And, if the retrieved information indicates that remittance should be issued on paper (check or draft), the remittance is likewise issued accordingly.
If a payee is not determined to be a managed payee, remittance will be issued on paper. In these cases, some service providers automatically issue a check drawn on a demand deposit account associated with such a payment service provider, typically known as a corporate check, as the form of remittance. Still other payment service providers perform risk processing to determine whether paper remittance will be a corporate check, or a draft drawn on a demand deposit account of a payor. A draft is a special class of check, one prepared by an entity other than an account holder of the account upon which the draft is drawn.
In risk processing, a payment request is evaluated against a set of rules that determines whether the credit can be issued “at risk” to the electronic payment service provider. An “at risk” credit is a credit from an account belonging to a service provider. Risk processing in only performed in those instances where a service provider is not assured of receiving funds in at least an amount of a payment made on behalf of a payor. If a determination is made that a payment will not be issued “at risk”, payment is made by a draft drawn on a payor's demand deposit account prepared by a service provider. This could happen even if payment processing determined that the payment could have been issued electronically.
A service provider can be assured of receiving funds in a “good funds” model of payment processing. In a good funds model an electronic payment service provider performs a debit authorization against a payor's demand deposit account before issuance of a credit. That is, an electronic payment service provider first assures that funds from a payor's account are available before a credit is issued on behalf of that payor.
A service provider can also be assured of receiving funds in a “guaranteed funds” model of payment processing. In a guaranteed funds model an entity other than a service provider commits to reimburse the service provider for any credits issued for which an associated debiting of a payor's demand deposit account fails. The guaranteeing entity is typically the payee, although it may be another entity such as a consumer service provider, to be discussed further below, or a financial institution at which the payor's demand deposit account is maintained.
For other service providers a status of a payee as a managed payee is but one factor considered in payment processing to determine a form of remittance. Some service providers perform risk processing to determine if an “at risk” credit will be issued, which could cause remittance to be issued on paper (draft) even if the payee is an electronic payee.
Other service providers, potentially the same ones that also use the results of risk processing as a factor, first determine if a payee is an electronic payee, but then use the results of account scheming to determine a form of payment. Additionally, other criteria may be used in determining a form of payment, by these or other service providers.
Typically, a service provider has five mechanisms to complete payment to a payee on behalf of a payor. As discussed above, selection of a mechanism to complete payment is often made during payment processing. The first is ACH-ACH payment, which is all electronic, in which a service provider transmits both the credit portion and the remittance advice portion of remittance via the ACH network for delivery. The second is ACH-Direct Send payment, which is also all electronic, in which a service provider transmits the credit portion via the ACH network, and transmits the remittance advice portion directly to a payee via a network different than the ACH. Alternatively, in some ACH-Direct Send payments, remittance advice is delivered to a payee in hard copy. The third is Third Party payment, which is also all electronic, in which a service provider transmits both the credit portion and the remittance advice portion on to a third party remittance network for delivery. The fourth is Corporate Check payment, which is paper, in which a service provider delivers a check to a payee, the check being drawn on a demand deposit account belonging to the service provider. Printed remittance advice is printed upon or associated with the corporate check. The fifth is Draft payment, which also is paper, in which a service provider delivers a draft to a payee, the draft being drawn on a demand deposit account belonging to a payee and having printed remittance advice printed thereon or associated therewith.
FIG. 1A is a simplified depiction of the payment flow in completing payment to a payee on behalf of a payor utilizing ACH-ACH payment. At step 100 a service provider transmits an electronic funds transfer file, conventionally referred to as an ACH file; to the ACH network. The electronic funds transfer file includes a credit request and associated remittance advice. As desired, minimal remittance advice (similar to that printed on the face of a check or draft), or more detailed remittance advice, is included in the transmitted file, either as a memo note field in the credit request, or as separate but associated data. Currently, electronic funds transfer files must be transmitted onto the ACH network in batch. Some service providers store an indication in a payment history of the date and optionally time of the transmission. A payment history is a collection of information associated with each payment completed by a service provider. At a minimum, information in a payment history, for each included completed payment, includes information identifying a payee, information identifying a payor, a date and optionally time of remittance issuance, and a payment amount.
At step 105 the Federal Reserve receives the electronic funds transfer file and processes information included therein to identify the payee's financial institution. Via the ACH network, the credit request and remittance advice are then further transmitted to the payee's financial institution. The Federal Reserve acts as a huge switch, performing ACH transaction validation and propagating credit requests and associated remittance advice to appropriate financial institutions.
At step 110 the payee's financial institution receives the electronic funds transfer file. Upon receipt the payee's financial institution posts a credit in the amount of the payment to the payee's demand deposit account and beneficially sends the remittance advice to the payee, which might be a hardcopy delivery or an electronic delivery.
The payee receives and processes the remittance advice in step 115, which might be by electronic delivery, or by hardcopy delivery. Processing the received remittance advice includes posting the payment to the payor's account with the payee (crediting the payment amount to the payor's account). The amount of time between receiving remittance advice and a payee posting a payor's account varies among payees. At this point payment to the payee on behalf of the payor is completed. Either prior to, concurrent with, or subsequent to the service provider transmitting the electronic funds transfer file onto the ACH network, the service provider obtains funds at least in the amount of the payment from the payor. This can include electronically debiting a demand deposit account of the payor, credit account of the payor or stored value account of the payor in favor of a demand deposit account of the service provider. Also, this can include the service provider preparing and issuing a draft drawn on the demand deposit account of the payor payable to the service provider. It is also possible, though rare, for a service provider to bill a payor.
FIG. 1B is a simplified depiction of the payment flow in completing payment to a payee on behalf of a payor utilizing ACH-Direct Send payment. At step 101 a service provider transmits an electronic funds transfer file onto the ACH network. This electronic funds transfer file includes only a credit request, not remittance advice. As described above, some service providers store the date and optionally time that remittance is issued in a payment history. At step 101′, substantially concurrent with step 101, the service provider electronically transmits remittance advice directly to the payee. Though not shown, the remittance advice could, as desired, be transmitted to a concentrator or lockbox processor providing a service to the payee. In this case, the payee would obtain the remittance advice directly from this entity, not the service provider. Also, the remittance advice could be delivered to the payee in hard copy. Typically, the transmitted remittance advice is tailored (as to content and/or structure) according to desires of the payee.
At step 106 the Federal Reserve receives the electronic funds transfer file and processes information included therein to identify the payee's financial institution. Via the ACH network, the credit request is then further transmitted to the payee's financial institution.
At step 111 the payee's financial institution receives the electronic funds transfer file. Upon receipt the payee's financial institution posts a credit in the amount of the payment to the payee's demand deposit account.
In step 116 the payee receives and processes the remittance advice. Processing the received remittance advice, as discussed above, includes posting the payment to the payor's account with the payee. At this point payment to the payee on behalf of the payor is completed. Either prior to, concurrent with, or subsequent to the service provider transmitting the electronic funds transfer file onto the ACH network, the service provider obtains funds at least in the amount of the payment from the payor, as described above.
FIG. 1C is a simplified depiction of the steps in completing payment to a payee on behalf of a payor utilizing Third Party payment. At step 102 a service provider transmits a third party electronic funds transfer file onto a third party remittance network. The particular remittance processor operating the third party remittance network defines the format for the third party electronic funds transfer file. At a minimum, the file includes information identifying the payee, information identifying the payor, and a payment amount. As above, some service providers may store the date and optionally time of the transmission of the electronic funds transfer file onto the third party remittance network in a payment history.
At step 107 the third party remittance network receives the transmitted third party electronic funds transfer file and processes payment to the payee based upon the contents of the file. The actual operations to deliver funds and remittance advice to the payee vary between third party networks. At some point the payee receives funds and remittance advice from the third party remittance network and posts the payment to the payor's account with the payee. At this point payment to the payee on behalf of the payor is completed. Either prior to, concurrent with, or subsequent to the service provider transmitting the third party electronic funds transfer file onto the third party remittance network, the service provider obtains funds at least in the payment amount from the payor, as described above.
FIG. 1D is a simplified depiction of the payment flow in completing payment utilizing a corporate check. At step 103 a service provider issues a corporate check drawn on a demand deposit account belonging to the service provider and payable to the payee in the amount of the payment. The corporate check includes remittance advice printed thereon (or associated therewith). The service provider causes the corporate check to be delivered to the payee, typically via postal delivery. Some service providers store the date and optionally time that a corporate check is issued, which could be time prepared, or time mailed.
At step 108 the payee receives the corporate check and then deposits the same into a demand deposit account maintained at a payee's financial institution. The payee's financial institution receives the deposited check at step 113 and posts a credit in the amount of the payment to the payee's account. Some financial institutions print a time and date a check is deposited onto the deposited check. To actually receive funds, the payee's financial institution then sends the corporate check to the service provider's financial institution that maintains the service provider's demand deposit account.
At step 118 the service provider's financial institution receives the corporate check and settles with the payee's financial institution. Typically, settlement involves the service provider's financial institution transmitting an electronic funds transfer file, including a credit in the amount of the payment, to the payee's financial institution via the ACH network. The service provider's financial institution also posts the corporate check against the service provider's demand deposit account (debiting the service provider's demand deposit account in the amount of the payment). As a part of posting, the service provider's financial institution records the date, if not also time, of the debiting.
The service provider's financial institution, at step 123, sends a periodic account statement to the service provider reflecting the posted debit, including at least the date, if not also the time, of the debiting. Periodic account statements are typically sent in paper form, though sometimes electronically. Many financial institutions make information found in account statements available to account holders via a Web-based interface, and/or telephone-based interface. Most financial institutions include actual cancelled checks with periodic account statements delivered in paper form. Images of canceled checks may be available with an electronic presentation of an account statement.
At some point subsequent to receipt of the corporate check, at step 128, the payee posts the payment amount to the payor's account with the payee. Typically, posting to a payor's account is done subsequent to the depositing of the check with the payee's financial institution. At this point payment to the payee on behalf of the payor is completed. Either prior to, concurrent with, or subsequent to the service provider issuing the corporate check, the service provider obtains funds at least in the amount of the payment from the payor, as described above.
FIG. 1E is a simplified depiction of the payment flow in completing payment to a payee on behalf of a payor utilizing a draft. At step 104 a service provider issues a draft drawn on a demand deposit account belonging to the payor and payable to the payee in the amount of the payment. The draft includes remittance advice printed thereon (or associated therewith). The service provider causes the draft to be delivered to the payee, typically via postal delivery. Some service providers store the date and optionally time that a draft is issued.
At step 109 the payee receives the draft and then deposits the same into a demand deposit account maintained at a financial institution. The payee's financial institution receives the deposited draft at step 114 and posts a credit in the amount of the payment to the payee's account. As noted above, some financial institutions print a time and date a check (draft) is deposited onto the deposited instrument. To actually receive funds; the payee's financial institution then sends the draft to the financial institution that maintains the payor's demand deposit account.
At step 119 the payor's financial institution receives the draft and settles with the payee's financial institution. The payor's financial institution also posts the draft against the payor's demand deposit account (debiting the payor's account). The payor's financial institution, at step 124, sends a periodic account statement to the payor reflecting the posted debit, as discussed above.
At some point subsequent to the receipt of the draft, at step 129, the payee posts the payment to the payor's account with the payee. Typically, posting to a payor's account is done subsequent to the depositing of the check with the payee's financial institution. At this point payment to the payee on behalf of the payor is completed.
Consolidated payments can be made utilizing any payment mechanism other than draft. In consolidated payment a service provider makes payment to a single payee on behalf of multiple payors utilizing a single credit. The remittance advice associated with a consolidated payment identifies each payor in association with each payment amount.
An electronic biller is a biller that presents at least a subset of its bills, for at least a subset of its customers, electronically, either directly or through a biller service provider (BSP). A biller service provider is an entity that electronically presents bills to customers of an electronic biller on behalf of the electronic biller. A biller service provider can also be an electronic payment service provider. Such service providers are known as electronic billing and payment (EBP) service providers. Electronic bill presentment can be via any one of several electronic user interfaces, including Web-based interfaces, PC application-based interfaces, PDA-based interfaces, mobile phone-based interfaces, and set-top box-based interfaces.
Some service providers only make payments to electronic billers on whose behalf those electronic payment service providers electronically present bills. Such payment service providers are said to offer a “closed” electronic payment service. A subscriber of such a service provider can only direct payment of bills that the service provider has electronically presented to the subscriber.
Other electronic payment service providers only make payments to electronic merchants. Such electronic payment service providers are also said to offer a “closed” electronic payment service. An electronic merchant may or may not be an electronic biller. That is, an electronic merchant does not necessarily bill customers electronically.
Still other service providers make payments to any payee, as long as the service provider knows the payee's name and address, typically obtained from a payor. Such service providers are said to offer an “open”, or “pay anyone”, electronic payment service. Of course, a payment to a payee that is not an electronic payee has to be a paper (check or draft) payment.
A payment request, dependent upon payment processing supported by a particular service provider, can include a payment date as “immediate”, “future”, or “recurring”. For immediate payment dates, payment processing performed by a service provider is triggered promptly, such as at a next batch processing cycle. For future payment dates, a subscriber specifies a future date that directly or indirectly defines when payment processing is to begin. For recurring payment dates, a subscriber defines a recurring schedule of fixed-amount payments for either a finite or indefinite duration. Recurring payments are not especially suited for those payments that have varying due dates and/or amounts.
A subscriber-specified date in future-dated payment requests and recurring payment requests can, dependent upon a particular service provider, be either a process date or a due date. In a process date context, the subscriber-specified date triggers payment processing. The actual date on which a payee receives funds is dependent upon the type of remittance issued at the completion of payment processing. For payment of a bill, a payer must specify a payment date which takes into account payment processing and delivery time to ensure that the payee receives funds by the bill's due date.
In a due date context, the subscriber is specifying when a payee must receive funds. Thereinafter, a service provider determines when payment processing should start to ensure that funds are received by the subscriber-specified due date. A service provider often utilizes standard lead time to determine when payment processing should start. A service provider establishes a standard lead time by determining if a particular payee is an electronic merchant or an electronic payee. Often the standard lead time for electronic merchants and electronic payees is indicated as two days, and the standard lead time for non-electronic merchants and non-electronic payees is indicated as four business days. Standard lead times are based upon common knowledge that electronic information typically takes up to two days to reach a recipient, and that physical delivery of information typically takes up to four days to reach a recipient.
For immediate, future, and recurring payment dates a service provider cannot accurately and immediately inform a subscriber as to when payment will be completed. One reason is that payment processing is often utilized to determine a type of remittance, i.e., paper or electronic. Electronic remittance typically results in delivery of remittance to a payee in a shorter amount of time than paper remittance. For those service providers that perform payment processing in a batch mode at some time subsequent to receiving a payment request, these service providers cannot inform a subscriber, at the time the subscriber submits payment request, when remittance will be delivered to a payee, because the form of remittance is not known at the time, unless, of course, the service provider makes all, or most, payments according to a single payment mechanism.
Some service providers require that a subscriber establish a payee list. A payee list identifies payees a subscriber intends to pay utilizing services of the service provider. The process to establish an entry in a payee list is known as payee set-up. During payee-set up a subscriber provides to a service provider information identifying a payee, including at least the payee's name and address. The electronic payment service provider stores this information, often in a subscriber profile database, for later use in making payment to set-up payees.
For a payment request that originates at a Web-based interface, and sometimes other type interfaces, a subscriber's payee list is presented for the subscriber to select a payee for the payment request. Sometimes a presented payee list includes a standard lead time for each included electronic payee and each included non-electronic payee for the subscriber to utilize in determining a date of the payment request. That is, a presented payee list will have at most two different standard lead times, one for electronic payees and one for non-electronic payees. A presented lead time informs a subscriber that it may be expected that payment to a payee will be completed within a certain time frame. Standard lead time information is often stored with payee lists.
Another reason a service provider cannot accurately and immediately inform a subscriber as to when payment will be completed is that there is typically considerable variance between payees as to when received remittance will be posted in an Accounts Receivable ledger. Further, when remittance is paper, physical delivery of the remittance is typically out of control of the electronic payment service provider.
As a result of a service provider being unable to accurately and immediately inform a subscriber as to when a payment will be completed, a subscriber cannot retain control of funds for as long as possible, and cannot efficiently manage cash flow. Further, some payees receive late payment even when a payment request is submitted to a service provider prior to a due date of a payment. Consequently, a subscriber often has to assume a “worst-case” scenario and schedule the payment with more than the necessary lead time.
Accordingly, a need exists for a technique for an electronic payment service provider to accurately and immediately inform a subscriber as to when a payment to a payee will be completed.
Some service providers offer notification of pending due bill payments when those service providers electronically present those bills. Whenever an electronic bill is available for presentment the service provider presenting the bill transmits a notification to the appropriate subscriber that the electronic bill is available for viewing. This notification is sometimes an email notification, other times it is EBP application-based. In application situations a notification is not delivered to a subscriber until the subscriber accesses a service provider system via a network and provides log-in information, such as user name and password. Thereafter a notification is transmitted from the service provider system to the subscriber. Some service providers transmit a second notification if a payment request to pay a bill has not been received prior to a predetermined time before a due date of the bill. Other service providers transmit not only a notification of bill availability, but bill summary information, such as amount and due date, to a subscriber. Notices transmitted by some service providers also often include a link for submitting a payment request to pay the bill with which a notice is associated.
Other service providers offer the service of automatic payment of a bill. This service is known as autopay. In autopay, a biller transmits billing information, which may be bill summary information or bill detail information, to a service provider. Upon receipt, the service provider pays the bill on behalf of the subscriber without receiving a payment request to pay that particular bill. Oftentimes the received billing information is never electronically presented to the subscriber by the EBP service provider in autopay techniques. The subscriber provides the service provider with authorization to autopay a particular biller, and may even establish conditions for doing so.
As will be understood from the discussion above, the only bills that a subscriber might receive notification of having payment due, from an EBP service provider, are bills which that EBP service provider electronically presents. Further, no service provider that does not electronically present bills provides notification of payment being due.
Accordingly a need exists for a technique of notifying a subscriber of a due payment of a bill that is not electronically presented by a service provider.
Typically included in a biller's bill is posting information associated with a previous payment made by a customer, whether that be a payment made by the customer, or a payment made on behalf of the customer by a service provider. This posting information includes at least a date upon which the previous payment was applied to the customer's account with the biller. Some billers offer telephone-based or Web-based systems through which a customer can receive early posting information associated with a previous payment, no matter what entity made the payment.
The services offered by electronic payment service providers and EBP service providers have become widely accepted. Millions of bills are electronically presented to subscribers each month, and millions of payments are completed on behalf of subscribers each month. Many subscribers pay all of their bills utilizing an electronic payment service provider or an EBP service provider. Thus, a service provider has become a central point of bill payment activity for these subscribers.
Many subscribers desire to know, prior to receiving a next bill, when payments have been posted. These subscribers must contact billers directly, as discussed above, to obtain posting information instead of receiving posting information from a service provider. Thus, even though a subscriber pays a bill utilizing an electronic payment service, and may even have received that bill from the service provider offering the electronic payment service, that subscriber must interact directly with a biller to obtain posting information prior to receiving a next bill. To date, no electronic payment service provider and no EBP service provider offers the service of providing early posting information to subscribers. At most, some service providers present completed payment information stored in a payment history to subscribers. This lets a subscriber know to whom a payment was made, the payment amount, and when remittance was issued, but not posting information. Some subscribers contact a service provider seeking early posting information, which is costly in customer service.
Accordingly, a need exists for a technique for a service provider, whether that service provider is an electronic payment service provider or an EBP service provider, to make early posting information available to a subscriber.
A claim arises when a payment, for some reason, cannot be correctly posted at a payee. This could be due to failure to properly deliver any portion of the payment to the payee, or failure of the payee to properly handle the received payment. For example, the payee does not properly identity a payor's account to credit. Typically, a claim will arise because the service provider based a payment on incorrect and/or incomplete information obtained from a subscriber during payee set-up. Also, some subscriber-provided information might be correct when it is provided during payee set-up, but due to changes made by a payee, it becomes incorrect and/or incomplete over time. These changes include, but are not limited to, payee name and address changes and account scheme changes.
Either a payee or a subscriber can bring a claim to the attention of a service provider. A payee brings a claim to attention oftentimes when the payee cannot identify the correct subscriber (customer/payor of the payee) with which to associate the payment received from the service provider. In some such instances, a payee-might post a payment to a wrong account. In other such instances, a payee might actually return a payment to a service provider because the payee cannot identify any customer. A subscriber brings a claim to attention oftentimes when a payee does not post a payment in a timely manner, or at all.
Claim resolution is a process in which claims support personnel associated with a service provider aid in resolving a claim. That is, they work with the payee and/or the subscriber to ensure that a payment is correctly posted.
If a payment is posted by a payee to a wrong account, or posted to the correct account late, a service provider is not aware of this unless and until a subscriber brings a claim to the attention of the service provider. Also, if a payee cannot post a payment to any account, a service provider is not aware of this unless and until either a subscriber or a payee brings a claim to the attention of the service provider.
Unposted payment and untimely payment posting cost a subscriber in one or more of damaged credit rating, late fees, interest charges, and service interruptions. Claim resolution associated with unposted and untimely posted payments both service providers and payees in man-hours. There currently is no technique for a service provider to recognize that an issued payment has not been posted or timely posted without intervention from a subscriber and/or a payee.
Accordingly, a need exists for a technique for a service provider to ensure that an issued payment is timely posted without requiring a subscriber and/or a payee to notify the service provider of a posting problem.
Introduced above, payment service providers provide remittance advice to payees in association with payments made on behalf of subscribers. In each of the five payment mechanisms discussed above, remittance advice is received essentially concurrent with, or exactly concurrent with, a credit. A payment service provider issuing remittance has knowledge of the payment from the instance of processing a received payment request. However, a payee has no knowledge of the payment until remittance is actually received.
Payees, especially billers, often maintain information associated with received payments. Payees utilize this maintained information for a myriad of purposes, including, but not limited to, customer relationship management (CRM), customer service, and cash flow forecasting.
CRM techniques are utilized to maximize profits received from a payee. This includes tracking a payee's behavior, including purchasing habits and/or payment habits, to identify up-sell and cross-sell opportunities. Thus, maintained payment information is often utilized to identify payees that payors wish to target to maximize profits.
Customer service includes claim resolution, discussed above. Thus, maintained payment information is often utilized in resolution of payment posting problems, as well as resolution of other customer service issues. In clash flow forecasting a payee projects funds receipt based upon, among other factors, the timing of receipt of past payments. Thus, maintained payment information is often utilized to determine future income.
A payee cannot utilize information associated with a payment made by a payment service provider on behalf of a payor in CRM, customer service, and cash flow forecasting until that payee receives the payment from the payment service provider, even though the payment service provider has knowledge of the payment prior to issuing remittance to complete the payment. Accordingly, a need exists for a payment technique in which information associated with a payment is available for use by a payee prior to a payment service provider issuing the payment to the payee.